How new tech from Montreal could help the fight against period cramps

Undated photo of a woman experiencing period pain. (Sora Shimazaki/Pexels)

A Montreal engineer is developing technology to fight an all-too-familiar issue: period pain.

Applied to the abdomen in patch form, Nanette Sene's device uses heat and microelectronic technology to relax the muscles and block pain signals to the brain.

"It's not intrusive, it doesn't go into the body," Sene explained to CTV News. "You put it on your skin, on your lower stomach where you have pain, and you remove it once you feel relief."

"The feeling is a numbing sensation."

Menstrual cramps -- whether mildly annoying or utterly debilitating -- can be challenging to treat.

Medications aren't always an option, Sene noted, and traditional methods like hot water bottles and plug-in heat pads are cumbersome and indiscreet.

After years of suffering from her own menstrual pain, she was inspired to develop a solution that doesn't interrupt daily life.

In a 2017 survey of over 30,000 women in the Netherlands, nearly 14 per cent of respondents said they'd taken time off work or school due to period symptoms, while over 80 per cent reported going to work anyways -- but with a decreased level of productivity.

Montreal engineer Nanette Sene has been awarded for her work on a discreet device used to fight period pain. (Gail Bergman/Nanette Sene)

Sene hopes her tech, the first project under her startup Juno Technologies, can play a part in resolving this issue.

"[It's] discreet. You can wear it anywhere, while still being highly efficient," she said.

Sene was granted $5,000 from the Canadian research organization Mitacs, scoring the 2023 award for social entrepreneurship, as well as the prize for best product pitch.

Her device is still in the development stage, but the goal is to start testing the product this summer and pitching to investors in the fall.

Sene and Juno Technologies -- named for the Roman goddess and protector of women -- aim to come up with more period pain fixes in the future.

"Eventually we want to create more devices, more products, more solutions."